Morbid Tales, Part 3: I AM THE TABLE (Patreon)

Greetings, yes you, come nearer from the darkness. My bloodlamps boil brighter when mortals are near. Cast off thy unwanted appendages and gather at my scrying table. Here she shows us a world, just beginning...

Welcome to Morbid Tales, issue 3! That's right, calling a blog post a publication only adds to the depth fo the situation, unchained!

Brother John, the barbarian seen in the last Morbid Tales post, and my actual brother, put together a custom table for me, framed and inset with pink foam. I've never gone this hard on a table before and on my quest to create the full studio experience, I must become the table.


I wanted to capture something of a medieval crossroads, what it became is more of a roundabout but the feeling is still there. It all started with some sloppy marker work.


Then, blade in hand, I started carving the earth into a place more fit to be ruled.


With the land itself opening hungrily to chaos it was time for a sidewalk. This was by far the most time consuming part. There is no shortcut when creating flagstone pathways. The more I cut and fit and paid attention to detail, the more proud I would be when this project was done.


Once the pieces were laid in careful relation, I swept them to the side so I could clean up the mess and replaced them in a different order, this time using Vallejo texture paste as my masonic batter. There were also some areas I coated in white glue and applied Martian Ironearth to. I've been told the crackle medium work better over gloss or non porous surfaces. Seems legit.

I placed the table out on the porch so it would dry faster. Then I laid my hands on it. Kneading with my thumbs and pressing my nails into the crevices. I wanted to give it more variation without ruining the flatness. I'll have to stand Scenery up on this but a little variation was needed.


Broch walks alone across wavering planes of sand-butter. This is also me realizing the crackle medium will work better over the texture paste.



But man, its beautiful. Finally taking shape and not looking too far off from my imagination. Time to operate. The stones needed a bit of character so I put the dremel to them and sanded the remains.



I decided not to add any permanent trees but it did need something extra. Something to take more advantage of the option to carve into the ground and work some negative space. Then it hit me, the grates! In the Azyros Ruins kit there are a couple of grates, thanks to Vince Venturella I have like 10 of these.




Once I paint this in I'll first fill the cells with some black water. I think I still need a little more pop on the details as well. A few sticks, bones, discarded weapons, lengths of chain. The small spice that will provide more interest when I'm staging action shots. Oh and some shallow pools of water, I've keft a few puddle shapes bare so I can slick over them with mod podge dimensional magic.

But here it stands, my little acre or chaos. It was a really good time and a side of the hobby I don't do often enough. The scenery makes the world real, models are only half of it.

Unchained!